Eschalon: Book III - What the Hell Happened?

February 19th, 2014, 07:17

Basilisk Games has a new post on their forums about the launch of Eschalon: Book III.

So, what the hell happened last Friday?

Friday (Feb 14th) we launched Eschalon: Book III early in the morning. The web traffic was already starting to affect our site even before the launch, but we went ahead and announced it anyway. While we waited on the game files to be mirrored on to other sites, we had put local copies up for the first customers to be able to get (big mistake).

The demand was too great. You animals began grabbing the files like they were the last bottles of water and the world was about to end. The traffic crushed our website.

We called GoDaddy and were given some very bad advice: we were told that in order to fix this problem, we needed to upgrade our hosting platform (they should have just reset our connection and let us take the files offline). We were told the switch would take a couple hours, and that it would be transparent. This was misinformation by the GoDaddy "sales and support" staff. Here's a helpful tip: anytime a company combines "sales" and "support", you are going to get horrible advice. We later found out migrations actually take 24-72 hours, and it wasn't transparent…we'd be down the entire time.

Worse, the GoDaddy first-tier support technicians did not know what they were doing. We were moved from our Linux server to a Windows server. This caused the migration to fail and have to be restarted. After the first move to the new Windows server, we needed to switch again back to Linux, which is another migration of 24-72 hours.

24-72 hours to move a website? Trying to move a Linus based website on Windows. Who the hell still use Windows servers for webhosting server anyhow?

Seems like GoDaddy techs are morons. Although, it's not the first time I see something like that and not just with GoDaddy. From my experience webhosting companies are there to screw you and take your money, competent services aren't part of the deal.

I'm not through the whole game yet, but this thing is feeling very, very short. Looking at the Field Journal post on the Basilisk forums, I'm at about the halfway point and I've only been playing for a few hours. This feels like an iphone game, to be honest. It'd be a nice game on the phone but it lacks content to feel like a full-fledged crpg. I'm wondering if the free demo portion of Avadon might last longer than this whole game.

Maybe this is episodic and this is Book III chapter 1 of 5 or something? This is just an impression, maybe it takes forever to do the latter maps. You do start off with a bunch of quests, but those end quickly and I have 1-3 things in the journal.

So it is basically a demo. That is sad. He should have ported it to the iphone and skipped the pc. It is disappointing to pay for something that short on a computer, but it would be acceptable on a phone for $5. Oh well. Live and learn. I'll tell all my friends on Steam and Facebook to wait for a sale. Several were asking about it. I can't suggest a game that looks this archaic and is so very short for $20.

Originally Posted by Nameless one
It is short unfortunately, as I said on another thread it took me 13.8 hours according to in game stats to finish it with all side quests completed.Book 2 was around 20 hours long without expansion.

Maybe he just left out the "big empty sections with cow dudes" at the end?
Because that's what bulked out the end of the first two.

If it's shorter, but less empty toward the end, I'll be happy*. (Note: I liked the first two quite a bit, just thought the end third of each could have done with a bit more development).

[*So, umm, is it? Thanks]

— Proud leader of the Shit Games Liberation FrontAll your shit games are belong to us

"There are a few maps towards the end that were left intentionally sparse, so players could hunt and XP grind if they didn't think they were prepared to enter the end sequence. We chose to pack more content in the first 3/4 of the game rather than spread it out evenly, which helps players build their characters more quickly. There are also regions left intentionally missing (Fandugan, West Mirkland) that are meant to be areas that modders can fill."

See, the game was getting really long at 15 hours, so he left the end areas for modders to finish. If the game was 60-80 hours I'd buy that reasoning, but it doesn't really fly.

I am glad that he's releasing the mod tools. He's built a very nice, simple engine. If someone with writing talent tackles the engine, then even though BW's effort was minimal, we might get some really decent mods which will finally make the game worth the $20.

An interesting aside to his statement: The mines (the first dungeon you get to explore, nowhere near the end), has one level with about 20 creatures to kill and 1 whole person to talk to. There is a second level with about 10 creatures to kill and 0 people to talk to. It takes less than an hour to do both levels and most of that is very boring walking with nothing to do. The dungeon could have been 1/10th the size with the same amount of content and not feel full. Same with the first outdoor area. 20 minutes of walking around (if you're searching for hidden stuff) at a snails pace with about 15-20 things to find as you walk. If you could run instead of walk in this game, it'd be over in 5 hours.

Let me give a little credit though: Finding stuff is half the fun of this game. If you think of E3 as hide and seek with combat, it succeeds fairly well

Don't get me wrong. I like the game that BW made, I just wish there was a LOT more of it. If the leveling was halved and the game content was tripled, this would be a very good game.

While I'm getting close to finishing this game, I have played for over 25 hours according to the game clock and I replayed the first one third since I'd already played an early release version to that point and knew what to do. Perhaps you're missing a few things. I like it better than part 2.

Originally Posted by Corwin
While I'm getting close to finishing this game, I have played for over 25 hours according to the game clock and I replayed the first one third since I'd already played an early release version to that point and knew what to do. Perhaps you're missing a few things. I like it better than part 2.

I don't think missed much, I got 100% quests completed and 25/30 secrets found.It might have to do with type of character I played.I played melee+ divination combo, which turned out to be seriously OP when you get enough mana regen.Since he can heal, detox, remove disease and even generate food I rarely needed to camp or go back to town(I only go back to rapier and sell loot), and haste(this spell is op)+bless+ leather/stone skin made most fights easy(also cat eyes but it gives advantage only in dark).I will probably play through at least one more time with another build and see how long it takes me.

Also I found book 2 to be better especially dungeon design.

Anyone knows what's next for Basilisk? I liked Eschalon lot so I wouldn't mind another Eschalon 2, or even book 4 in same series, but it's unlikely.